The suicide of meriwether lewis essays

The suicide of meriwether lewis essays In the early hours of October 11, 1806, while en-rout to Wasington to defend himself against accusations made on him in accordance to the fiancial decisions made by him as govoner of the Louisian teritory,Meriwether Lewis shot himself in the head with his own pistol at Natchez Trace.1 However, the ball only grazed his skull. Of course, after doing so he fell to the floor in pain. After this, Lewis drew his second pistol, and shot himself in the chest, this passing through his body and exiting at his lower back bone. However, once again, he survived this blow. By now he had aroused Mrs. Grinder, the innkeeper at Natchez Trace, who sent for the servants in the barn. After entering Meriwethers room she saw Lewis cutting himself with a razor. At this point he exclaimed, I am no coward; but I am so strong, [it is] so hard to die. At this point Lewis pleaded with the servants to take his rifle and kill him; he even offered them money and the assurance that no ill fate would come to them. After dawn, Meriwether Lewis hart stopped beating. 3 To understand why such a well respected man, and explorer took his own life we must examine what composed his life, this being his upbringing and major events and influences in his life.4 Meriwether Lewis was born August 18, 1774, the same year of the Boston Tea Party, in Rockfish Gap, Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here the East met the West.5 Lewis had the advantages of living in the wilderness to sharpen his hunting and wilderness skills, but when the availability of schooling from the East.6 Meriwether Lewis was born on the eve of the revolution. He was brought up with a very anti- British attitude. Meriwether also was brought up knowing of what his ancestors had accomplished. For instance Robert Lewis, a Welshman, was one who moved from Britain to the wilderness of Virginia, on a grant from the King of England of thirty-three thousand thirty three an...